Trump adviser Rudolph W. Giuliani said Thursday that President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen didn’t even ask before he made the decision to pay porn actress Stormy Daniels and make the problem “go away.”
“Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job,” Mr. Giuliani said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
The former New York City mayor did reiterate that the $130,000 payment was motivated by personal reasons, rather than political.
“It wasn’t for the campaign. It was to save, not their marriage, [but] their reputation,” Mr. Giuliani said.
Despite saying the payment was personally motivated, however, Mr. Giuliani brought the conversation back to the campaign.
“Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton?” he said.
Mr. Giuliani said Wednesday that it’s possible some of the money Mr. Cohen used to pay Mr. Daniels was Mr. Trump’s money.
“I don’t even know if Michael used some of Trump’s money beforehand to pay. I can’t tell you that when he made the payment [of $130,000], that some of that wasn’t already out of the money that Donald was paying him then,” Mr. Giuliani told The Washington Post.
Mr. Giuliani made headlines late Wednesday after saying that Mr. Trump paid Mr. Cohen back for the $130,000 payment made to Ms. Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, to prevent her from speaking about an alleged sexual encounter between her and Mr. Trump in 2006. The president had previously denied knowing about the payment.
He added that Mr. Trump likely paid Mr. Cohen back in monthly installments, in addition to the taxes, beginning in January or February, estimating the total to be about $250,000.
Mr. Giuliani told Fox News Wednesday that Mr. Trump repaid Mr. Cohen for making the upfront payment from his personal funds, not campaign money, meaning that there is no case for allegations of campaign cash violations.
“It’s not campaign money. No campaign finance violation,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “Funneled to a law firm, and the president repaid it.”
Mr. Giuliani also told The Post that it’s unlikely Mr. Trump knew about the nature of the payments until the former mayor told him.
“Probably now, when I told him,” Mr. Giuliani said, when asked when the president realized the money was a refund for the payments made to Ms. Daniels.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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